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Vanity Sizing: London Metropolitan University Guest Panellists on The Divisive Practice

Recently, London Metropolitan University held a panel discussion about size inclusivity in the world of fashion. 

During the event, students were given the opportunity to ask the six guest panellists, all from various backgrounds in the fashion and modelling industries, questions regarding contentious issues faced by plus-size shoppers of major clothing brands. 

Eager to share their thoughts on the subject of sizeism before their audience, the guest panel members included: plus-size model and dancer Queen Mojo, casting agency director Jody Furlong and stylist Bethan Dadson. 

Also consisting of the line-up were model and content creator Josephine Dervish, Harvey Nichols assistant buyer Amelia Barraclough and activist Lindsay McGlone. 

One topic, however, brought up far more discussion amongst the six stars of the show than any other; the practice of "vanity sizing".  

Vanity sizing, according to the magazine Cosmopolitan, can be described as when fashion designers increase the sizes of their clothing without adjusting the size stated on the garment's label accordingly. 

Bethan suggested returning trends have contributed to the persistence of this phenomenon: "A lot of them [brands] are trying to go back into this whole nineties chic era, you know, the supermodels and the slim torsos and everything."

"I think a lot of brands now are engaging in that, and it's like it's almost moved back to that kind of era because, you know, Y2K fashion especially is pretty popular at the moment." 

Furthermore, Lindsay added: "It feeds into that rhetoric that as a society, if we are smaller, we are better."

"If we are smaller, we are more valid. If we are smaller, we're going to feel about picking up that size eight rather than a size ten." 

Amelia said, "The UK average size is like a size 16, and that's where, you know, the size ends for the brands that I'm buying [for Harvey Nichols]."

The assistant buyer continued: "It's pretty crazy to think that that's the average size, you know, so it's like, why aren't we going beyond that?"

However, she believes the issue lies with brands, not Harvey Nichols as a retailer: "I think for sure, if they were offering those larger sizes to buy, I would definitely buy into them." 

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